Boiling water!

[Britsmoothy]

Still think boiling water is bad for barrels?
Check this out! I found an old box of ICI 22's. Read the small print.

Nothing beats boiling water for dissolving salts
B.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

That’s a fetching box. I have found, and this is just ME, that warm water does the job every bit as well, is safer to work around, and does not promote flash rust. Boiling water may work well for guns with a patent breech system, though, I need to dry that.

 

[TNGhost]

The hotter it is, the quicker it heats the barrel and thus the quicker and more completely the barrel dries.

I like it hot for my barrel cleaning chores.

 

[Carbon 6]

Aqueous spray parts washers get hotter than boiling.

 

[Walkingeagle]

My grandfather cleaned all his guns with a boiling water flush. I believe it was a carryover from his wartime experience.
Walk

 

[bore_butter]

I knew I was doing something right

 

[Ames]

And they used to put an unruly amount of lead into paint. And drill holes into your skull if you acted crazy.
I think I'll pass.

 

[JoJoLesh]

I would not worry much about it harming the metal parts. I would worry about it harming the wood and wood finish.

I don't really enjoy unpinning my barrel that much.

 

[Juice Jaws]

That’s a fetching box. I have found, and this is just ME, that warm water does the job every bit as well, is safer to work around, and does not promote flash rust. Boiling water may work well for guns with a patent breech system, though, I need to dry that.

I am with you on this one. I went from boiling water to warm water, safer and does just as good for MY needs. And now for my smoothbore and cap & balls I just use a mix of ballistol and water. ( 1 to 7 parts) and that does a good job. But I never worry about using water just dry and oil the bore.

 

[mushka]

I just use ambient temp water to clean, then dry patch and leave the barrel out in the sun to dry completely. Here in Yuma it don't take long to get the barrel really hot with the sun.

 

[JoJoLesh]

I just use ambient temp water to clean, then dry patch and leave the barrel out in the sun to dry completely. Here in Yuma it don't take long to get the barrel really hot with the sun.

The sun? What is that. Can you mail me some?

 

[mushka]

We got too much, you ain't got enough.

 

[Walkingeagle]

And they used to put an unruly amount of lead into paint. And drill holes into your skull if you acted crazy.
I think I'll pass.

Lol, jeeze some people grasp! They also used to use Black powder (gasp!!), Flint, bear grease and hides. Not everything used in the past was bad.
Walk

 

[JoJoLesh]

Lol, jeeze some people grasp! They also used to use Black powder (gasp!!), Flint, bear grease and hides. Not everything used in the past was bad.
Walk

In the days of Old Bony they pissed down their barrels to clean them.

I will see if I can dig up the reference again.

 

[Zonie]

In the days of Old Bony they pissed down their barrels to clean them.

I will see if I can dig up the reference again.

IMO, that's the sort of idea that was dreamed up by some fiction writer who thought the idea would add interest to their story. Seems I recall reading something like that in a story about the buffalo hunters.
Now, I can't say for certain but the buffalo hunters whole lives depended on their rifles so the idea of pissing on or in them simply doesn't make any sense. (The old expression of, "Piss on it" never is used in a complimentary way. It always is used to show total disrespect for something.)

All but the most ignorant people know urine contains a lot of salt in it and they also know that salt causes rust on steel or iron. In other words, salt water or urine is about the last thing anyone would want to use in their barrel.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

As for using boiling water to clean one of my muzzleloaders, I would never do it.
It's not that I'm so concerned with the barrel or the stock. It's I am concerned about damaging ME.
Just a little slip that ends up pouring boiling water on any part of me will cause major burns to my hide. Burns that are painful and take a long time to heal. No thanks. Using room temperature water and a bit of dishwashing soap works fine on all of my black powder guns. Even the ones I shoot Pyrodex in.

 

[JoJoLesh]

I don't recall where I heard it, but I seem to remember that it was a reliable source. There is fairly good chance it is bunk though. But....

There is a huge difference between a commercial hunter, with their own gun and a conscripted trooper with an issue weapon who has more instruction on how to march than they have on how to shoot.

Undersized ball, shooting on mass, and rate of fire highly prioritized over accuracy of fire.... And the ever prevalent Good Idea Fairy, makes me think that it may have some merrit.
I doubt that it is in any training manual, but did it happen... Maybe. Again, I will ttry and source it.

 

[Carbon 6]

Water is a solvent and in absence of other chemicals works best as a cleaning agent the hotter it is. Warm water cleans better than cold water and hot water cleans better than warm water and steam cleans better than hot water.

Each temperature offers a different level of cleaning ability for different purposes.

 

[Clueless on the Delaware]

I use hot tap water in a 1 qt measuring cup with about 5 drops of dawn dish soap. Dismount the barrel, held with a rubber oven mitt with the breach end in a bucket, pour down the muzzle 'till it comes out clean. Run a few alternating patch and brush strokes and it's clean as a whistle. I then dry with a loose wad of paper towels and lightly coat with oil inside and out. Haven't had any rust problems at all since I started this regimen.

 

[TNGhost]

The only documented widespread use urine in cleaning gun barrels is from the Russians in WW2 and it was more for the conservation of precious water supplies and fuel (to melt ice/snow) than it was for the fact it was an effective cleaner.

Also, urine in past times was collected and used in place of what we would call "modern chemicals" for cleaning and etching certain products as well as other industrial endeavors, so the fact it may have found its way to cleaning a few gun barrels is not really that much of a stretch historically. Could very well even been used in the production of gun barrels as one thing it was used for was cleaning impurities off of steel during its production.

As far as the salts in urine, and adding another step to flush them out. That's easy, warm water works better than cold, and when you are unable or unwilling to start a fire to heat water, you can use urine, which is considerably warmer than ambient temperatures, especially in winter, for the heavy cleaning and then follow with a quick rinse of cold water. Thus saving fuel, keeping your position hidden, etc.

Hot water makes much more sense these days though.

 

[FishDFly]

Hot water for cleaning has been bantered back and forth here as long as the Forum has been here with no positive proof that hot water cleans better than tap water.

Only thing hot water does is increase flash rust, I learned that many years ago.

I go to State and National shoots and watch folks clean their gun at the end of the day. They use tap water to clean their match guns and never have any problems getting them clean.

Most line shooters will clean their match guns at the end of the day, even if they are going to shoot them the next day. Match shooters are the most anal folks that I know about cleanliness.

They could go inside their tin tepee and get hot water, but they just use tap water.